Indian Express 24.02.2010
Stray dog menace: Pune civic body comes under fire from corporators
Express News Service Tags : corporation, stray dog menace Posted: Wednesday, Feb 24, 2010 at 0629 hrs
Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation has come under severe criticism from corporators from across all parties over its failure to check the increasing menace of stray dogs and pigs in the city.
Raising the issue, BJP corporator Dilip Umbarkar said that the civic administration has been slow to respond to complaints on the menace of stray dogs.
“The civic squad to catch stray dogs turns up two days after the complaint is filed. There has been increase in cases of dog bites in the city,” he said.
MNS corporator Rajendra Vagaskar said the civic administration is following an improper system of catching dogs and sterilising them.
“The dog catcher squad should be given a target everyday as they are unable to catch five dogs in a day and fail to perform their duty,” said NCP corporator Dilip Barate.
Corporator Sanjay Nande said it was wrong that the civic administration was releasing the dogs in Katraj area leading to trouble for local residents.
“The menace of pigs in Dhankawadi area was also on rise,” said Datta Dhankawade.
PMC chief medical officer R R Pardeshi said that the civic body has decided to increase the number of dog catcher squads and allot one vehicle each for four divisional offices.
On the delay in setting up shelter for dogs, he said it was difficult to get the required land for the purpose and also keeping all dogs together would add to the problems.
Meanwhile, the civic administration announced that a special drive against stray animals will be taken in next few days. On the issue of resolving the toll naka issue in Bavdhan area, the civic administration has decided to set up a committee of elected representatives to come up with a solution.
The toll naka set up by the state public works department in the PMC jurisdiction had been opposed by local residents of Bavdhan and corporators. The civic administration had assured that it would take up the issue with the state government but has failed to resolve it.
